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Got Bagels?

June 27, 2007

If you don't, be sure to stop by my house because we have more than we can wrap our stomachs around. Part of it is my fault, part is due to this month Daring Bakers challenge. Our mission given by Jenny and Freya was to make Real Honest Jewish Purist's Bagels. They were honestly good and since I made mini ones, twice, I ended up with a bunch...

Funny thing is that I had never had a bagel prior to moving to the US. I am sure you can find them in France but my catholic provencal background probably shunned me from knowing this delicacy. I made up for lost time, believe me! I love how versatile they are. We eat ours with sweet spread sor breakfast, pile halves with pizza topping, or use mini ones with snoked slamon and mascarpone for little munchies with friends. I like having a bagel around the house even if I won't eat all of it...it's bumpy smooth belly brings me comfort...I know I am weird...but if you know me you kow I am also the one who makes bread like crazy just for the smell and feel of it, even if I don't eat that much.

Toppings (I had 32 mini ones and free time so I played around), left to right, back to front:Herbes de Provence, poppy seeds, bacon, sesame seeds, fennel seeds, caraway seeds, coarse demerara sugar, cheddar cheese and maldon sea salt.

Our challenge was to follow it without changes so we could all compare notes. Seems like we all pretty much experienced the same things. For more reports, you can click on the side bar blog roll for Daring Bakers. All this to say that I had a blast making these and would make them again. Actually I did make them twice, just to see if the recipe would end up differently if halved. A few observations to keep in mind if you decide to try them: the dough was wickedly rising fast and high. Kneading does not take that long, about 8-10 minutes but do not skip this step. It's good for the nerves and it really helps the texture of your bagels in the end. When the time comes to shape your bagel, divide the dough in half and refrigerate the batch that you are not working on. The recipe mentionned that the bagels would sink to the bottom of the pot and then rise and float in the water. My first batch yielded about 32 mini ones, and only 10 sank, the rest nagged me by floating their little merry way ... Floaters or sinkers, they still tasted the same. I used all of the flour measurement, kneaded appropriately, respected rising times and still floaters. Same issue when I made them again a couple of weeks later and halved the recipe. I decided to go for the poke method to form them, and I had to push a rather large hole in the middle as the bagels had a tendency to swallow it back up upon their rising before their little trip in the water.

Thanks Jenny and Freya for a fun challenge. I will keep the recipe and make it again with some tweaking....I still want to make my bagels sink!

Since we eat them mostly at breakfast and since we are a mostly sweet household, these are some of the spreads we have with our bagels: mirabelles jam (yellow plums), cherry preserves, coconut honey and wildflower honey. Since I have so many bagels, I have been using them for mini sandwishes also with a spread of chive cream cheese, sprouts and some turkey slices.

Lovely bagels, Helen!And you're absolutely right: it's important to make a very big hole before the rising: in fact, the formed bagels look must look like rings before!I haven't seen all the details of the recipe you used, mine gave me excellent results of real new-york bagels (a recipe given by Lauren Groveman in Baking with Julia, so i guess a little bit jewish too!)http://sandrakavital.blogspot.com/2006/07/bagel-beigel.html

Can you send some over please :) In exchange, I will send some of my truffes in green tea that I just made today. Your bagels are so lovely. All these bagels I see online is making me itching to try making them.

Hole lot a bagels there Tartelette or would that be whole lot a bagels ?? Whatever they do look beautiful. I made them twice also and now am looking at another recipe to try and see what differences might come of that. This was an excellent challenge that makes me want to make bagels again - maybe not so many and not so big.I'm with the others "coconut honey" that sounds great!

I love your mini bagels, they are too cute! As for coming over to try some bagels with me and Phoebe, you have a free-standing invitation for whenever you like. I can throw in some quinces as well! hahaha

On another note: I've looked around, and followed with much interest, but I can't seem to find an answer or even a hint about how one can become a Daring Baker (I have noticed that the roll has gotten longer, so there must be a way...).

Any help on this? I'll even send pics of past projects if I need to...essay questions...personal interview...background investigation...

They look absolutely scrumptious Helene! I also had my first bagel on my first trip to the USA, and now getting a bagel with cream cheese and lox is on my 'to do' list for my yearly NY trip. I really like your bacon topping, very creative.

(for Sugino's book, there is a link to the Japanese amazon on kuidaore's latest post, you can translate the pages in English. If it doesn't work, let me know and I will ask my Japanese friend as soon as she gets back home from her holiday)

Anyway, we ate bagels for breakfast everyday. I hate lox (I know, I'm a bad Jew), so my mom would slice it in half and put butter and shredded Parmesan on, then heat it in the oven until the cheese melted. Sooo good that way.

What a great use of toppings and toppers. I would have never thought of honey on a bagel, but then I am a butter or pb fan so go figure. It looks and sounds like you really like the recipe and I think we are all in awe that you had sinkers.